Two aspects of feature sizes for semiconductor devices, such as processors, are controlled in a lithographic and etch process. The first aspect is a critical dimension of the absolute size of a feature, including linewidth, spacing or contact dimensions. The second aspect is the variation in feature size across the wafer surface as measured by steps of a wafer stepper. Linewidth and spacing measurements are regularly performed to determine the actual sizes of critical dimensions at each masking level of a process.
Linewidth control is affected by many factors including fabrication tools and equipment, process recipes, and raw materials. Critical dimensions are analyzed by measuring fabricated test structures with nominal feature sizes at many positions of a wafer. The measurement results are then plotted as a function of location to determine critical dimension variation.
The critical dimensions of polysilicon gates affect many operating parameters of integrated circuits, but fundamentally the greatest considerations of critical dimensions is speed performance and power consumption of a circuit. The smaller this critical dimension, the faster the operation of the transistor and the integrated circuit as a whole. Too small a polysilicon gate critical dimension, however, results in unacceptably high power consumption and parasitic currents in the transistor. An optimal operating point for this critical dimension is therefore defined by these countervailing effects. Thus, the narrower the distribution of critical dimension values centered about the optimal critical dimension in a lot of wafers, the more high speed, functional circuits are produced. Unfortunately, the critical dimensions resulting from conventional manufacturing methods are rarely optimum, resulting in reduced yield of high performance circuits. Furthermore, the conventional process is very wasteful when process conditions are substandard.
Accordingly, what is needed is a gate fabrication technique that balances critical dimension control and size. The present invention addresses such a need.